Defamation (2009)

Recommended

Israel/Austria/Denmark/Norway/USA

Feature Documentary

Original Title: השמצה

Director: Yoav Shamir

Cinematographers: Yoav Shamir, Yehonatan Ofek

Featuring: Abe Foxman, Norman Finkelstein, John Mearsheimer, Stephen Walt

Film-maker Shamir, a Jewish Israeli who, quite understandably, has never experienced anti-Semitism, though his country’s media is so often filled with mentions of it, sets off for New York and Auschwitz in order to find out what anti-Semitism means today, interviewing Jewish people from the far right and left of the political spectrum, and presenting us with some rather eye-opening results, with the views of a bunch of Israeli teenagers being particularly revelatory and decidedly depressing. Iain.Stott

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Jump Tomorrow (2001)

Recommended

UK/USA

Feature Film

Director: Joel Hopkins

Writers: Joel Hopkins, Iain Tibbles, Nicola Usborne

Cinematographer: Patrick Cady

Composer: John Kimbrough

Cast: Tunde Adebimpe, Hippolyte Girardot, Natalia Verbeke, James Wilby, Patricia Mauceri, Gene Ruffini

A confused, good-hearted man of Nigerian descent, who in a couple of days time is due to marry a family friend in a (sort of) arranged marriage, fortuitously or perhaps unfortuitously makes the acquaintance of a larger-than-life, heartbroken Frenchman and a sweet, drop-dead-gorgeous Argentinian woman (and her smug English boyfriend), and precedes to embark on a road trip with them, ostensibly towards his impending wedding but also perhaps towards some sort of self discovery, in Hopkins’s immensely likeable if occasionally overly quirky romantic comedy, which boasts a wonderfully subtle, deadpan performance from Adebimpe. Iain.Stott

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Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007)

Cautiously Recommended

USA

Television Film

Director: Yves Simoneau

Writers: Daniel Giat, Dee Alexander Brown

Cinematographer: David Franco

Composer: George S. Clinton

Cast: Adam Beach, Aidan Quinn, August Schellenberg, Gordon Tootoosis, Anna Paquin, Eric Schweig, Wes Studi, J.K. Simmons, Colm Feore, Fred Thompson, Nathan Chasing His Horse, Chevez Ezaneh

Spanning the period from The Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 to the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890, this engrossing, multi award winning television drama, based on Dee Brown’s book, tells of the American government’s numerous attempts to “civilise” the Sioux Indians in the reservations of the Dakotas, but it is let down somewhat by some occasionally rather speachy dialogue and an often intrusive and manipulative score. Iain.Stott

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Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003)

Essential Viewing

Taiwan

Feature Film

Original Title: 不散

Director: Tsai Ming-liang

Writer: Tsai Ming-liang

Cinematographer: Liao Ben-Bong

Cast: Lee Kang-sheng, Chen Shiang-chyi, Mitamura Kiyonobu, Miao Tien, Shih Chun, Chen Chao-jung, Yang Kuei-Mei, Lee Yi-Cheng

On what could well be its final night, a woman with a clubfoot keeps an eye on a grand old but decidedly dilapidated cinema and its patrons, most of whom are there merely to cottage rather than to watch the film – Hu’s Dragon Inn (1967) – in Tsai’s minimalist masterpiece, a plotless, beautifully photographed, and pathos laden lamentation for the long, slow death of cinema. Iain.Stott

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Braindead (1992)

Recommended

New Zealand

Feature Film

Director: Peter Jackson

Writers: Peter Jackson, Stephen Sinclair, Frances Walsh

Cinematographer: Murray Milne

Composer: Peter Dasent

Cast: Timothy Balme, Diana Peñalver, Elizabeth Moody, Ian Watkin, Brenda Kendall, Stuart Devenie, Jed Brophy

When his domineering mother is bitten by a rat monkey, which turns her into a flesh eating zombie, a shy, put-upon young man does his best to keep her and her ever increasing number of victims sedated and under control, all of which makes his budding romance with a young Spanish woman rather difficult to maintain, in Peter Jackson’s blood-splattered and campily hilarious rom-zom-com. Iain.Stott

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Elephant (2003)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Gus Van Sant

Cinematographer: Harris Savides

Cast: Alex Frost, Eric Deulen, John Robinson, Elias McConnell, Jordan Taylor, Carrie Finklea, Nicole George, Brittany Mountain, Alicia Miles, Kristen Hicks, Bennie Dixon, Nathan Tyson

Van Sant’s mesmerising if slightly disappointing take on the Columbine shootings borrows much of its formal elements from the far superior Sátántangó (1994) and Elephant (1989); so it sinks or swims by its content, which unfortunately often feels clichéd, inaccurate, manipulative, or merely exploitative, but, that said, there are enough moments of truth and beauty to make it recommended viewing. Iain.Stott

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25th Hour (2002)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Spike Lee

Writers: David Benioff

Cinematographer: Rodrigo Prieto

Composer: Terence Blanchard

Cast: Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper, Rosario Dawson, Anna Paquin, Brian Cox, Tony Siragusa, Levan Uchaneishvili, Isiah Whitlock Jr.

A convicted drug dealer, about to start a seven year sentence at a tough prison, spends his final 24 hours of freedom with family and friends, doing his best not to think about the likely ordeal to come, in Spike Lee’s gripping and very human film which, despite Blanchard’s occasionally intrusive score, works well as both personal drama and post 9/11 allegory. Iain.Stott

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Notre Musique (2004)

Recommended

France/Switzerland

Feature Film

Original Title: Notre musique

Writer/Director: Jean-Luc Godard

Cinematographer: Julien Hirsch

Cast: Sarah Adler, Nade Dieu, Rony Kramer, Simon Eine, Jean-Christophe Bouvet, George Aguilar, Ferlyn Brass, Leticia Gutiérrez, Aline Schulmann, Jean-Luc Godard

Godard’s (thankfully) more sombre and reverent than usual film presents, in three parts, a provocative and surprisingly moving portrait of man’s inhumanity to man: Hell shows, in the form of archive clips, scenes of war and carnage; Purgatory follows several parties around a literary conference in Sarajevo, where people discuss war, occupation, martyrdom, and the like; and Heaven presents a vision of an afterlife guarded by US military forces. Iain.Stott

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Summer (2008)

Highly Recommended

UK/Germany

Feature Film

Director: Kenneth Glenaan

Writer: Hugh Ellis

Cinematographer: Tony Slater-Ling

Composer: Stephen McKeon

Cast: Robert Carlyle, Steve Evets, Rachael Blake, Michael Socha, Sean Kelly, Joe Doherty, Joanna Tulej, Matthew Workman, Christopher Russell, Bethan Davies

A weather-beaten bloke in a small Derbyshire town, who acts as carer for his wheelchair bound friend who is dying of cirrhosis of the liver, experiences strong memories of his childhood and adolescence, remembering the good and the bad times and the girl that got away, in Glenaan’s overwhelmingly beautiful and achingly sad examination of friendship, educational failings, and alcoholism. Iain.Stott

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Adam & Paul (2004)

Highly Recommended

Ireland

Feature Film

Director: Leonard Abrahamson

Writer: Mark O'Halloran

Cinematographer: James Mather

Composer: Hugh Drumm, Stephen Rennicks

Cast: Mark O'Halloran, Tom Murphy, Louise Lewis, Gary Egan, Deirdre Molloy, Mary Murray, Paul Roe, Anita Reeves

Two down-on-their-luck heroin addicts – homeless, friendless, drugless, and penniless – trawl the streets of Dublin, on the day of their friend’s funeral, in search of drugs, money, or something to steal in order to get a fix, but unfortunately fate appears to be against them, in Abrahamson’s blackly comic, pathos laden film, which often feels like – as much as anything else – a (grimly brilliant) homage to laurel & Hardy. Iain.Stott

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Unrelated (2007)

Recommended

UK

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Joanna Hogg

Cinematographer: Oliver Curtis

Cast: Kathryn Worth, Tom Hiddleston, Mary Roscoe, David Rintoul, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Harry Kershaw, Michael Hadley, Emma Hiddleston

A middle-aged woman joins an old school friend and her large family on a boozy holiday to an idyllic Tuscany country retreat, but instead of spending time with her old friend and the rest of the adults, as would be expected, she gravitates more towards the very loud and energetic teenagers, causing confusion and creating rifts, in television director Joanna Hogg’s feature debut, a subtle, keenly observed examination of class, culture, and generational clashes, as well as a moving lamentation for lost youth and missed opportunities. Iain.Stott

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The River (1997)

Recommended

Taiwan

Feature Film

Original Title: 河流

Director: Tsai Ming-liang

Writers: Tsai Ming-liang, Tsai Yi-chun, Yang Pi-ying

Cinematographer: Liao Pen-jung

Cast: Lee Kang-sheng, Miao Tien, Lu Hsiao-Ling, Ann Hui, Chen Shiang-chyi

An unhappy Taipei family strive to alleviate their problems; the father, who frequents gay bathhouses, struggles manfully to manage a gushing leak from his bedroom ceiling; the mother struggles to find an appropriate outlet for her sexual desires; and the son, who recently played the part of a floating corpse in a polluted river in an Ann Hui film, suffers with a debilitating neck problem, in Tsai’s enigmatic minimalist drama, which lacks the poignancy and humour of his best work. Iain.Stott

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Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg

Writers: Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg

Cinematographer: Daryn Okada

Composer: George S. Clinton

Cast: John Cho, Kal Penn, Danneel Harris, Rob Corddry, Paula Garcés, Eric Winter, Neil Patrick Harris

Two Asian American stoners get mistaken for terrorists and sent to Guantanamo Bay, when the smokeless bong that one of them is carrying on a flight to Amsterdam is mistaken for a bomb; fortuitously, they manage to escape and head for Texas in search of love and freedom, in Hurwitz and Schlossberg’s tasteless and silly but ridiculously funny and sadly perceptive satirical comedy, a sequel to Harold & Kumar Get the Munchies. Iain.Stott

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Gerry (2002)

Highly Recommended

USA/Switzerland

Feature Film

Director: Gus Van Sant

Writers: Casey Affleck, Matt Damon, Gus Van Sant

Cinematographer: Harris Savides

Composer: Arvo Pärt

Cast: Casey Affleck, Matt Damon

Two young men named Gerry set out on a desert hike, but when they stray from the path they soon realise that they are lost; and without food or water they begin to search for a way out, in Van Sant’s gently droll and beautifully shot minimalist drama – an allegorical, existential masterwork, which owes a debt to Tarr, Tarkovsky, and Becket. Iain.Stott

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Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

Recommended

Spain/Mexico/USA

Feature Film

Original Title: El laberinto del fauno

Writer/Director: Guillermo del Toro

Cinematographer: Guillermo Navarro

Composer: Javier Navarrete

Cast: Ivana Baquero, Sergi López, Maribel Verdú, Doug Jones, Ariadna Gil, Álex Angulo, Manolo Solo, César Vea, Roger Casamajor, Pablo Adán

During the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, as Franco’s soldiers roam the hills looking for any remaining pockets of resistance, Ofelia, a young girl whose father died during the war and whose mother remarried a fascist captain, disappears into a fantasy world of faun’s and fairies, where she is a long lost princess, in del Toro’s wonderfully imaginative, painfully violent, and surprisingly moving film. Iain.Stott

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Ten (2002)

Highly Recommended

Iran/France

Feature Film

Original Title: 10

Writer/Director/Cinematographer: Abbas Kiarostami

Cast: Mania Akbari, Amin Maher, Kamran Adl, Roya Arabshahi, Amene Moradi, Mandana Sharbaf, Katayoun Taleizadeh

Kiarostami’s beautifully simple yet never simplistic film follows a wealthy, attractive, and amiable but put-upon Tehranian artist as she gives ten rides to family, friends, and strangers (including her bratty, misogynistic son and her decidedly fragile sister), each captured with a static dashboard mounted camera, gradually building-up a portrait that sheds light upon the plight of the modern, urban Iranian woman. Iain.Stott

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Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

Essential Viewing

USA

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Cinematographer: Robert Elswit

Composer: Jon Brion

Cast: Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Luis Guzmán, Karen Kilgariff, Mary Lynn Rajskub

Barry Egan – the only brother amongst eight siblings, who suffers from one or more anxiety disorders and runs a trading business of some sort – finds his life drastically altered, for better and worse, when he meets a sweet English girl, gets into trouble with a blackmailing phone-sex worker, and discovers a way to exploit an airmiles promotion, in Anderson’s hilarious, disquieting, and swooningly romantic film, a distinctively shot and scored one-of-a-kind masterpiece. Iain.Stott

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The Guardian's Top 50 Television Dramas of All Time (2010)

1. The Sopranos (1999-2007)
2. Brideshead Revisited (1981)
3. Our Friends in the North (1996)
4. Mad Men (2007-)
5. A Very Peculiar Practice (1986-1988)
6. Talking Heads (1987)
7. The Singing Detective (1986)
8. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1989)
9. State of Play (2003)
10. Boys from the Blackstuff (1982)
11. The West Wing (1999-2006)
12. Twin Peaks (1990-1991)
13. Queer as Folk (1999-2000)
14. The Wire (2002-2008)
15. Six Feet Under (2001-2005)
16. How Do You Want Me? (1998-1999)
17. Smiley's People (1982)
18. House of Cards (1990)
19. Prime Suspect (1991-2006)
20. Bodies (2004-2006)
21. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979)
22. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)
23. Cracker (1993-1996)
24. Pennies from Heaven (1978)
25. Battlestar Galactica (2003-2009)
26. Coronation Street (1960-)
27. The Jewel in the Crown (1984)
28. The Monocled Mutineer (1986)
29. Clocking Off (2000-2003)
30. Inspector Morse (1987-2000)
31. This Life (1996-1997)
32. Band of Brothers (2001)
33. Hill Street Blues (1981-1987)
34. The Prisoner (1967-1968)
35. St Elsewhere (1982-1988)
36. The L Word (2004-2009)
37. The Shield (2002-2008)
38. Brookside (1982-2003)
39. 24 (2001-)
40. The Twilight Zone (1959-1964)
41. Pride and Prejudice (1995)
42. Red Riding (2009)
43. Oz (1997-2003)
44. The Street (2006-2009)
45. The X-Files (1993-2002)
46. Bleak House (2005)
47. The Sweeney (1975-1978)
48. EastEnders (1983-)
49. Shameless (2004-)
50. Grange Hill (1978-2008)

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Cahiers du Cinéma's Films of the Decade (2000s)

1. Mulholland Dr. (2001)
2. Elephant (2003)
3. Tropical Malady (2004)
4. The Host (2006)
5. A History of Violence (2005)
6. Couscous (2007)
7. Tie Xi Qu: West of Tracks (2003)
8. War of the Worlds (2005)
9. The New World (2005)
10. Ten (2002)

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